Selling on KDP vs Listing on BooksOasis: Use One or Both?

The Short Answer

For most indie authors, the answer is both. Amazon KDP gives you access to the biggest book marketplace in the world, which no other store can replace. BooksOasis is a smaller independent bookstore that charges a flat plan instead of a commission, so each ebook sale pays you the full price you set. Treat KDP as your main sales channel and BooksOasis as an extra storefront, especially for readers you send there yourself.

The one rule that changes the picture is KDP Select. An ebook enrolled in it can only be sold on Amazon, so it cannot be listed on BooksOasis at the same time. Print editions are not affected.

Two Different Business Models

Amazon KDP is free to use. You upload your ebook, paperback or hardcover, set a price and Amazon pays you a royalty on each sale. The royalty rate depends on the format and the price you choose, and Amazon keeps the rest. Because Amazon earns only when you sell, there is nothing to pay up front.

BooksOasis flips that arrangement. You pay a flat plan to list your books, monthly or yearly, and the store takes no cut of the price. Ebooks pay you 100% of what readers pay. Print editions pay the price minus the printing cost and a handling fee equal to 30% of that printing cost, and readers cover shipping at checkout. Books are reviewed briefly before they go live.

Neither model is better in every case. A commission model costs nothing until you sell. A flat-plan model costs something even in a slow month, but pays more on every sale once books are moving.

Side by Side

Ebook Earnings, Worked Through

KDP's 70% royalty applies to ebooks priced from $2.99 to $12.99 on Amazon.com, with a delivery fee of $0.15 per megabyte taken from each sale. Outside that range, the rate drops to 35%. That is why so many indie ebooks sit between $2.99 and $6.99.

Figures are before tax and currency conversion. The gap is widest at the edges: very low promotional prices and premium prices above $12.99, such as boxed sets and specialist nonfiction, where KDP pays 35%.

The plan fee matters too. On the Starter plan, $29.99 a year, the extra $1.35 or so you earn on each $3.99 sale compared with KDP covers the year after about 22 sales. If you expect to sell only a handful of copies outside Amazon, the plan may not pay for itself. If you have a newsletter, a website or a reader community, it usually will.

Print Earnings

For paperbacks sold on Amazon.com, KDP pays 60% of the list price minus printing when the price is $9.99 or more, and 50% minus printing below $9.99. Printing cost depends on page count, trim size and ink.

BooksOasis ties its fee to the printing cost rather than the price. You earn the price minus the printing cost and 30% of the printing cost. Because the fee does not grow as you raise the price, every dollar above the minimum price goes to you. On a higher-priced paperback or hardcover, that can mean more per copy than a percentage-based royalty.

Print is also where you can use both platforms with no restrictions, even if your ebook is in KDP Select.

The KDP Select Question

KDP Select is an optional 90-day program. Enrolled ebooks join Kindle Unlimited, where you earn from a shared monthly fund based on pages read, and you get promotional tools such as free days or a Kindle Countdown Deal. In return, the ebook must be sold exclusively through Amazon for each term.

That leaves three sensible setups:

• Stay in Select, list print on BooksOasis. Keep Kindle Unlimited income and add a second home for your paperback and hardcover.
• Go wide with your ebook. Leave Select, sell the ebook on Amazon at the normal royalty and list it on BooksOasis and other stores.
• Split your catalog. Keep page-turning series in Select where they earn well from page reads, and list standalone or nonfiction titles wide.

If you are unsure which suits your books, our guide to what KDP Select is and when it pays walks through the trade-offs.

Audience and Discovery

Amazon wins this category easily. Millions of readers search Amazon for books every day, and its recommendations, also-bought lists and ads can put a book in front of people who would never find it otherwise. For discovery by strangers, nothing else comes close.

BooksOasis is a newer store built for independent authors and small presses. Readers browse genre shelves, new releases, series pages and books on sale, and promotional prices you set show the regular price crossed out and can appear in the store's sale banners. Because the catalog is smaller, a book is not buried among millions of others, but traffic is far lower.

The realistic way to see it: Amazon finds readers for you, while BooksOasis rewards you most for readers you bring yourself. A link in your back matter, newsletter or author website can send readers to a store where each sale pays in full.

Control Over Price and Listing

On KDP, you set a list price, but the royalty bands steer you toward certain prices, and Amazon can match a lower price found elsewhere. On BooksOasis, the price you set is the price shown, and you can schedule a sale price with start and end dates for each format.

BooksOasis also lets one account run unlimited author names and imprints, with readers seeing only the public identity you choose. One book can carry ebook, paperback and hardcover editions on a single page, and the dashboard checks print files and shows the exact cover size and spine width once your interior is uploaded. Buyers read ebooks in the store's reading app, which works offline and syncs their place, highlights and notes.

KDP, meanwhile, gives you tools BooksOasis does not offer, including Amazon Ads, A+ Content, pre-orders and Kindle Unlimited.

A Practical Plan for Using Both

1. Publish on KDP first. Get your ebook and paperback live where most readers shop.
2. Decide on KDP Select per title. Enroll books that suit Kindle Unlimited, and keep others free to list wide.
3. List your print editions on BooksOasis. There is no exclusivity on print, so this works for every book.
4. Add wide ebooks to BooksOasis. Any ebook not in Select can be listed and earn the full price per sale.
5. Send your own readers there. Add a BooksOasis link to your back matter, newsletter and website, where the higher payout matters most.
6. Review after a few months. Compare sales and decide whether to keep, grow or change your plan.

You can compare the listing plans, including a pay-as-you-go option for a single book, on the BooksOasis pricing page before you commit.

Payments

KDP pays monthly, about 60 days after the end of the month of sale. On Amazon.com, direct deposit has no minimum. BooksOasis records sales in an earnings ledger in your dashboard and pays by bank transfer or PayPal. If a BooksOasis plan lapses, your books stay live and earnings are held until you renew, rather than lost.

Frequently Asked Questions